"Opaluna" combines the name of
a multicolored gemstone with the Spanish word for "moon," capturing
the duo's hybrid identity in a single word: two languages combining to form one
meaning, a combination of vibrant colors and bold luminescence. Like their
name, Opaluna's sound is also a portmanteau, bringing together two singular
voices into one harmonious sound. Pineda melds the sounds and traditions of her
native Colombia with a passion for modern jazz, while Bay Area native Salcedo
brings his rock background and penchant for experimentalism together on the
frontiers of Latin-inflected jazz.

"Our music is a blend of two
cultures, two stories, two backgrounds and two languages creating one,"
says Pineda. Salcedo continues, "We didn't want to do something that had
been done before. Working together, we got very excited about how much we could
do."

The pair met while both were students at
Berkeley's California Jazz Conservatory. Pineda began studying jazz in her
hometown of Medellín but decided to move to the States in 2013 at the
encouragement of her mentor, singer Claudia Gómez. She chose CJC due to the
program's emphasis on a range of Latin traditions supplementing its core jazz
focus. Salcedo came to the school with a more straight-ahead jazz interest, but
his partial Mexican heritage led him to begin exploring Latin music. He and
Pineda came together in a class on Afro-Venezuelan music and soon recognized
their shared passions.

Soon the duo embarked on a journey of
sonic experimentation, at first playing music for one another, then arranging
jazz standards together to determine a common ground, and finally improvising
together in an effort to discover a unified voice. "We would start from
scratch, just improvising out of nowhere and seeing what happens," Pineda
recalls. "We knew that we didn't want to do the traditional swing thing or
play bolero normally. We wanted to blend everything we are, and we wanted to do
it in a modern way."

A professor at CJC, Ridgeway Arts
founder Jeff Denson heard the burgeoning duo during a lesson and immediately
sensed a special chemistry in the nascent pairing. He invited them to record
for the San Francisco-based non-profit's Ridgeway Records label, mentoring them
through the process from a crowd-funding campaign through recording and
post-production, producing the album at the legendary Fantasy Studios and also
contributing his remarkable bass sound to three tracks. Fellow CJC faculty
member and Bay Area percussion legend John Santos also guests on two cuts.

"I was drawn to Opaluna's music and
wanted to produce them because of their creativity and passion," Denson
says. "They inhabit a colorful world of sound, beauty and social
consciousness that crosses cultural and musical boundaries and really draws you
in. Working with Susana and Lu at the California Jazz Conservatory, I found them
to be sincere, motivated young artists that care deeply about their craft. I
wanted to mentor them further with the creation of their debut recording
because I believe in their vision and see their great potential. Now more than
ever, the world desperately needs art and music that inspires creative thought,
generosity and compassion and Ridgeway Arts seeks to promote artists and
projects with this same goal in any way that we can!"

Both members of Opaluna give Denson
ample credit for helping to hone their sound and teach them invaluable lessons.
"Jeff is an amazing musician, and having the opportunity to engage in a
back and forth with him about musical aesthetics was extremely helpful,"
says Salcedo. To which Pineda adds,
"He always wanted to keep Opaluna and not change who we are. He
just wanted to take our music and our sound to another level."

Opening track "Bridges" sums
up Opaluna's approach while paying homage to the multi-cultural diversity of
their Bay Area home. "It's pretty startling to be able to walk down one
street and travel the world at the same time," Salcedo says. "The
song is a metaphorical journey form one side of a bridge to the other, and
during that trip across the bridge it changes feels and tempos from one
cultural subject to another, which is something that really resonates with us
because we're trying to bridge all these different stories and
backgrounds."

The album is itself a journey, beginning
with the chirping samba-funk of the co-written "Bridges" and
continuing through the intoxicating sway of "Instinto Ornitológico,"
with Denson on bass and backing vocals. The Cuban classic "Dos
Gardenias" is rendered with a swirling romantic atmosphere, cut through by
Salcedo's incisive solo, while Wayne Shorter's "Mahjong" starts as a
folk tune with a supple wordless vocal and percussive acoustic guitar before
being subsumed in a psychedelic haze.

Salcedo wrote the intense "Does It
Rain on the Moon?" with lyrics taken in part from the immortal children's
tale "The Little Prince." A fluid Afro-Caribbean groove fuels
"Champeterapia," while both the wistful "Young Bonds" and
the ethereal "Once We're Gone" were built around Pineda's evocative
poetry. Pineda's "Pétalos" is an intimate take on modern jazz, while
"Baile de Opuestos" reimagines the childlike standard
"Inchworm" as a Colombian joropo.

After spending three weeks touring
Colombia this summer, Pineda and Salcedo's collaboration has truly bridged the
duo's respective cultures. Their musical partnership has been an ongoing voyage
of discovery, resulting in an uncategorizable sound that finds them meeting
somewhere in the middle - or, perhaps, some other, completely unexplored new
territory. "After all this time playing together," Salcedo says,
"everything morphs into what we both need it to be."

Derrick
Hodge blows our mind yet again – and reminds us with this set that he's way
more than just a bassist who's known for his earlier work with Robert Glasper!
Instead, Hodge takes on a whole host of different instruments – and often
provides most of the music on most of the tracks, thanks to the magic of
overdub – including some sweet piano and keyboard passages that have a very
Glasper-like sense of soul, but which also reflect the more open range of some
of Derrick's musical ideas! Some tunes have a very open, spacious quality –
others are more rhythmically focused – and the set features some
instrumentation from Marck Colenburg on drums, Keyon Harrold on trumpet, and
Marcus Strickland on tenor. Titles include "Clock Strike Zero",
"For Generations", "Transitions", "Song 3",
"The Second", "Heart Of A Dreamer", "Going",
"Don Blue", and "Underground Rhapsody". ~ Dusty Groove

DERRICK
HARRIOTT – REGGAE, FUNK & SOUL 1969-1975

The title
certainly gets it right – as Derrick Harriott serves up a wonderful mix of
sounds that owes plenty to American funk and soul of the early 70s – some cool
Kingston covers of famous US tunes, and some other originals that are equally
groovy overall! The set's one of the best that we've ever heard from the Dub
Store label – and almost has a Soul Jazz level of track selection – really wonderful
work that either features Derrick in the lead, or working with some hip
contemporaries, in a groove that's totally great – neither straight reggae, but
also quite far from more familiar funk and soul too. Titles include "Black
Moses" by The Preacher, "Tougher Than Tough" by I Roy,
"Brown Baby" by Derrick Harriott, "Hell Below" by Crystal
Generation, "Going Back Home" by The Chosen Few, "Psychedelic
Train" by Derrick Harriott, "Slippery" by Karl Bryan & The
Crystalites, "Home Sweet Home" by Bongo Herman & Les,
"Rescue The Children" by Junior Murvin, "Phoenix" by Noel
Brown, "People Make The World Go Round" by The Chosen Few, and
"Message From A Black Man" by Derrick Harriott. ~ Dusty Groove

JIM SNIDERO –
MD66

Fantastic
work from reedman Jim Snidero – wrapped up tight here in the frontline with
trumpeter Alex Sipiagin, a pair who come off with a hell of a lot of focus and
power right from the very first note! Sipiagin's horn provides this farther
reach for Snidero's ideas – really pushing his alto strongly as the pair weave
wonderful lines at the start of the tune, then break off into their solos –
driven by excellent work from bandmates Andy Laverne on piano, Ugonna Okegwo on
bass, and Rudy Royston on drums. The album's got a fresh, bold sense of power that
reminds us that jazz, once again, is all about bringing the right folks
together in the right way! Titles include "MD66",
"Recursion", "Free Beauty", "Who We've Known",
"Blue In Green", "Unified", and "Purge". ~ Dusty
Groove

It’s not too
much of a stretch to say that Percy Faith invented easy listening music; along
with Mantovani, he pioneered the use of string sections to soften and sweeten
the brass-dominated sound that dominated popular music during the ‘40s. Faith
was also one of Mitch Miller’s main men at Columbia Records, where he provided
arrangements for everybody from Doris Day to Tony Bennett to Johnny Mathis, and
he composed some of the most memorable soundtrack themes of all time. Now, Real
Gone pays tribute to one of the great arrangers and composers in pop music
history with a 32-track set spanning 22 years of recordings, including hit singles,
tracks drawn from a total of 20 different albums, and a number of his most
revered compositions for the screen. Among the highlights: the #1 hits
“Delicado,” “Where Is Your Heart (from ‘Moulin Rouge’),” and “The Theme from ‘A
Summer Place;’” his soundtrack themes to the films Tammy Tell Me True, The
Oscar, and The Love Goddesses, and the TV series The Virginian; and some of his
signature adaptations of Latin music like “How Insensitive (Insensataez)” and
“Brazil (Aquarela Do Brasil).” Joe Marchese provides the notes, and the package
includes photos from the Columbia vaults as well as some of the great cover art
that adorned Faith’s album releases. Remastered by Maria Triana at Battery
Studios in New York…like the title says, the definitive—and largest ever—Percy
Faith collection!

Resonance Records has announced the release of
SHIRLEY HORN - LIVE AT THE 4 QUEENS, a previously unissued live recording by
legendary singer/pianist Shirley Horn accompanied by her rhythm section of over
20 years, the late bassist Charles Ables and drummer Steve Williams, recorded
by Las Vegas NPR affiliate KNPR on May 2, 1988 at what noted author James Gavin
describes as "Las Vegas's hip little oasis for jazz lovers, the jazz club
inside the 4 Queens Hotel." Resonance will release this album in a deluxe
CD package and a digital edition on Friday, September 16, 2016.

Live At The
4 Queens was recorded only one year after her 1987 "comeback album"
on Verve Records, I Thought About You, which reignited her international
touring career after a nearly 20-year hiatus during which she had restricted
her musical activities to her home town of Washington, D.C. so she could devote
herself to raising her daughter.

Featuring
nine tracks and over 50 minutes of music, Live At The 4 Queens features Shirley
Horn's interpretations of popular songs including "You'd Be So Nice to
Come Home To" by Cole Porter, "The Boy from Ipanema" (the female
version of "The Girl from Ipanema") by Antônio Carlos Jobim,
"Isn't It Romantic?" by Rodgers and Hart, "Lover Man (Oh Where
Can You Be?) by Jimmy Davis, Roger ("Ram") Ramirez, and James Sherman
and many others.

Long a
favorite of Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, who both championed her early in her
career, Shirley Horn was a unique jazz presence. As a performer, Shirley Horn
was immediately recognizable for the mood she created, her swinging,
harmonically sophisticated piano playing and her evocative, velvety voice. As a
pianist, she was so gifted that Miles Davis once said "If she don't play,
I ain't gonna play..." in reference to a gig at the Village Vanguard, and
would have her perform as a sub for Wynton Kelly at various club performances.
As a singer, she never failed to cast a spell on a room. She inevitably
transported her listeners with her moodiness and her uncanny ability to
maintain a compelling sense of musical motion even at the slowest possible
tempos, which became a hallmark of her style.

When
producer Richard Seidel signed Shirley Horn to Verve in the mid-1980s, her
career was relaunched, and this time she became celebrated internationally as
well as in the United States. A series of enormously successful albums
followed. Most featured just her regular trio with bassist Charles Ables and
drummer Steve Williams, while others had rhythm section colleagues like Ron
Carter and Billy Hart, along with special guests such as Miles Davis, Toots
Thielemans, Wynton Marsalis and Branford Marsalis. And as a stylistic
departure, Horn recorded the memorable album, Here's to Life (recorded in 1991
and released in 1992), in which Horn is showcased with a large ensemble
arranged and conducted by Johnny Mandel (who received a Grammy® award for his
work on the album).

Shirley
Horn's return to prominence had her performing in all the major festivals
around the world, plus iconic American venues like Carnegie Hall, prestigious
concert halls throughout Europe and Asia, and even in the White House. Horn
continued touring and recording at a torrid pace for nearly a decade until
health problems forced her to pare back her performing and recording activities
in the early 2000s. Nominated nine times for Grammys®, Horn finally won one for
Best Jazz Vocal Performance in 1999 for her album, I Remember Miles, produced
by Richard Seidel.

This album,
Shirley Horn - Live At The 4 Queens, captures her at her creative peak. As
Seidel observes, "This record is very much in the vein of Shirley's first
album on Verve [I Thought About You] and is an excellent example of her work in
an intimate club atmosphere."

When
producer Zev Feldman became aware of the recordings that make up this album, he
was thrilled. Shirley Horn was a very special artist for him. Feldman, like
Horn, is a Washington, D.C. native. Now 43, Feldman came of age while Horn was
still only playing in and around Washington at jazz clubs like the Pigfoot and
the One Step Down. Right at the time Feldman started working in the record
business for PolyGram, which became Universal Music Group, from the mid-1990's
to the mid-2000's, Shirley was one of the biggest stars of the label and
Feldman was a Verve representative promoting her steady stream of new albums
being released during that period. Feldman saw Horn often in those days, even
driving to her house on more than one occasion to have her sign CD booklets,
and attended many concerts as a part of his job arranging venue sales for
record retail. "Being the local Verve representative, I got to see her
play everywhere from The Kennedy Center and Bohemian Caverns in DC, to the
Village Vanguard in New York and Zanzibar Blue in Philadelphia." But
beyond his role as a label rep, he developed a friendship with Horn and on
numerous occasions was invited after gigs to join in her inner circle with
manager Sheila Mathis and drummer Steve Williams. So when the opportunity arose
for Resonance to pursue the release of the material, Feldman jumped at the
chance.

Since
Feldman knew what an important artist Shirley Horn was (and because
inexplicably no books have been written about her), he was determined to make
this album package the most authoritative and comprehensive compendium of
materials possible with an extensive 56 page book of analytical, scholarly
essays; first-person accounts by musicians and producers who worked with Horn;
remembrances by her friends, colleagues and her daughter; plus a number of
previously unpublished photographs from the Shirley Horn archives at the
Library of Congress. Feldman says, "We want this CD and album book to
remind us why she was great, why she mattered."

Live At The
4 Queens was captured the day after Horn's 54th birthday, and you can hear what
a good time she's having celebrating the occasion in Las Vegas on this
recording. The CD kicks off with a spirited instrumental version of the 1950's
classic "Hi-Fly" by Randy Weston, and also includes Rainy Smith's (Horn's
daughter) favorite song that her mother would play, "Meditation
(Meditação)," which she humorously says she never knew the name of all
these years until now. The hallmarks of any Shirley Horn album are of course
the ballads, and this album delivers two powerful ones - "Lover Man (Oh
Where Can You Be?)" and "Just For A Thrill," which James Gavin
writes "builds slowly; then her bristling chords build up so much tension
that the energy explodes in a big crescendo. Horn lets it subside like a cloud
of smoke." "The Boy from Ipanema" is a playful take on the bossa
nova classic, which Horn actually got to perform once at Antônio Carlos Jobim's
birthday party in Rio de Janeiro. And one of Horn's rollicking blues staples,
"Blues for Big Scotia," closes the set in rousing form.

As Jon
Pareles wrote in The New York Times on November 10, 1988, "Songs are lucky
when Shirley Horn chooses them. She honors melodies just by singing them
unadorned, in a voice of honey and smoke; she enunciates every word, shaping
small and large peaks with just a slight pause or a lingering vowel . . . And
when the time comes to improvise, the song's emotion guides her; she drapes
lyrics in bluesy curves and finds epiphanies in tender phrases."

Shirley Horn
left an indelible mark on the jazz scene with her catalog of recordings. And
one can't deny her influence on other musicians - her contemporaries, as the
great Sheila Jordan suggests in her interview from the liner notes, and as
those who came after her, such as the gifted singer/pianist Diana Krall. This
package is a tribute to Shirley Horn's memory and Resonance Records is thrilled
to celebrate and contribute to her legacy with this release. The recordings
illuminate her genius and represent her creative peak. Live At The 4 Queens
reminds us of what an extraordinary artist she is.

Resonance
Records is delighted to release Shirley Horn - Live At The 4 Queens with the
participation of KNPR Las Vegas. Produced for release by Zev Feldman along with
executive producer George Klabin. Sound restoration is by George Klabin and
Fran Gala. The beautifully designed package is the creation of long-time
Resonance designer, Burton Yount.

A great little small group session from
trombonist Steve Turre – one that has the leader working with a quartet on the
core numbers, then getting some great guest help from tenorist Javon Jackson on
some other titles too! The quartet numbers alone are wonderful – laidback,
soulful, and filled with easily-blown solos from Turre – who's working with a
great rhythm trio of Kenny Barron on piano, Ron Carter on bass, and Jimmy Cobb
on drums – all of whom deliver more than their legend might imply in the
setting! Jackson's horn gives his tracks a nicely special crackle – which seems
to draw a bit more edge on Steve's trombone – and the final number also
features some guest percussion from Cyro Baptista. Titles include "Mellow
D For RC", "Taylor Made", "Quietude", "Joco
Blue", "Coffee Pot", "Reflections", and
"United". ~ Dusty Groove

A really
wonderful title for this excellent little collection – as the package is
overflowing with tremendous work from artists who've really held onto their
soulful strengths over the years! Some of the artists are older ones, others
are part of the Neo Soul underground of the past decade or two – and together,
the tracks are united in a wonderfully positive, wonderfully upbeat groove – of
the sort that reminds us why we love soul music in the first place! Titles
include "When You Feel What Love Has" by Lenny Fontana with D-Train,
"Get Your Head Out The Phone (funky dance mix)" by Bill Curtis &
Friends with The Fatback Band, "Whatever It Takes" by Angela Johnson,
"Open Sesame" by Beggar & Co, "Don't Hide Your Wings"
by Eric Roberson, "Ordinary Day (Scratch Professor retwist" by Omar,
"In The Open Space" by Vladimir Cetkar, "Beta Waves" by
Nu-Era, "Round & Round (old school mix)" by The Pasadenas,
"Don't Go (Shane D's solar club mix)" by DJ Skip with Shalamar,
"Heaven (Frankie Valentine rmx)" by MODE with Leroy Burgess, and
"Show Me Love (Yam Who rework)" by Incognito with Carleen Anderson. ~
Dusty Groove

CHARLES
MCPHERSON – LIVE IN TOKYO

Fantastic work from reedman Charles McPherson – a
player who was really coming back to basics in the mid 70s, but also finding a
way to stretch out with a sound that was different than his initial albums of a
decade before! Charles has moved way past the straight bop that first got him
notice – yet he's also got this deft way of making changes that hardly denies
that legacy at all, and instead turns to a newly fluid sense of expression that
might well make McPherson one of the most soulful altoists of his generation –
especially in the long legacy of great records that flowed from this period.
The group features Barry Harris on piano, Sam Jones on bass, and Leroy Williams
on drums – and tracks are nice and long, with titles that include "Tokyo
Blue", "East Of The Sun", "Desafinado", "Orient
Express", and "Bouncing With Bud". CD features two bonus tracks
– "Groovin High" and "Blue N Boogie". ~ Dusty Groove

It was
against all odds that Anna Danes found herself standing in Capitol Records
Studio A, in front of the same microphone used by her role models, Frank
Sinatra and Nat King Cole, recording an a cappella song that she wrote for her
sophomore album. In the dimly lit studio in the heart of Hollywood, the woman
who escaped communist Poland as a child and overcame the pain and loneliness of
a loveless marriage by discovering her voice just three years ago poured her
broken heart into the intimate album closer, “I Love You,” as producer Dave
Darling sat spellbound at the recording console. In the famed studio during
sessions financed by selling a car, Danes shared her deeply personal tales of
love and loss through the six acoustic jazz songs that she wrote for “Find Your
Wings,” the DLG Records disc scheduled for release on October 14 that is
completed by five standards and a stunning interpretation of blues singer
Janiva Magness’ “When You Were My King.”

Late last month, as Danes plotted with
her marketing and promotions team to gear up for the upcoming album release,
she was diagnosed with breast cancer. True to the theme of “Find Your Wings,”
the positive-minded vocalist faced her worst fears, saw the silver lining and
penned a motivational blog, “Cancer Part 1: Vanity Saved My Life,” to help educate
and encourage others facing their own health and personal challenges
(http://www.annadanes.com/2016/07/31/cancer-part-1-vanity-saved-life/).

When Danes began the recording project
that is slated to street during National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, she had
the desire to emulate the sound of a pair of jazz vocal albums from the
esteemed duo of Tony Bennett and Bill Evans. Darling kept Danes’ captivating
and expressive voice front and center in the mix using only sparse
accompaniment from pianist Rich Ruttenberg, drummer John Ferraro and bassist
Trey Henry. Blessed with a classic voice possessing charm, warmth, elegance and
grace, Danes’ patient delivery and vocal phrasing uncoils with poise and
complete control despite the vulnerability and intensity of her emotion-charged
subject matter. Love is her ever-present muse on “Find Your Wings.” On
originals, she sings a haunting melody on “The Voice,” pines hopefully on “See
You In L.A.” and longs to see forever in the eyes of her lover on “Long Distance.”
Among those she interprets from the Great American Songbook are Michel
Legrand’s “I Will Wait For You,” Sammy Cahn’s “It’s Crazy” and Johnny Mercer’s
“I Want To Be Around” while on the romantic duet “That’s All,” she takes
enduring vows with Richard Shelton’s debonair tenor.

“I’m a very late bloomer in life. For
the majority of my life, I’ve either had little confidence or have drafted off
other people’s confidence and floated under their wings,” said Danes, who wrote
the title track with Cindy Alexander. “Cindy asked me what I wanted to write
about. I told her about my story post-separation and how I found my voice and
confidence through music. Bam! That’s all that was needed to start the creative
process. What was supposed to be a song about finding hope, turned into an
anthem about finding yourself, your true purpose, your voice, your identity and
so much more.”

Finding her voice has been life
transforming for the former lawyer and stay-at-home mom who has called San
Diego home for the past 16 years. Danes hopes to empower people to pursue their
passions and dreams with the songs on “Find Your Wings,” which will also be the
subject of her first book, personal growth products and motivational speeches
on the corporate circuit. Via music, writing and speaking, Danes’ encouraging
message is that by facing your fears - in health and any personal challenge –
you can break out of your cage, find your wings and transform your life.

Although she sang as a child in church
after arriving in Sweden and settling in Canada after escaping Poland with her
parents in 1979, Danes didn’t sing again until 2013 when her young daughter
cried boredom and refused to participate at a vocal lesson. Since the lesson
was already paid for, Danes stepped in. She released her debut album that same
year, “Longing,” which was an extravagantly produced and
elaborately-orchestrated collection of standards and modern pop tunes. Her love
of jazz spawned the mission to bring more live jazz to the San Diego area
through her own event production and promotion company, which produces the Jazz
on Cedros series. For more information, please visit www.AnnaDanes.com.

Music legend Chick
Corea is spending his 75th birthday at home: on the road.

Corea has spent 50 years on the world's
most venerated stages, playing with a pantheon of fellow-traveling musical
compatriots, and now he's packing it all into one year.

For 2016, he's lined up an Iron-Man
marathon of tour dates, literally circling the globe: Phoenix to Minneapolis to
Naples to Stuttgart to Tokyo to Beijing to Honolulu and back to LA.

This activity will lead up to the
greatest jazz birthday party ever: an unprecedented two-month residency at New
York's Blue Note Jazz Club this fall, where Chick has assembled an
unprecedented lineup of giants to do what they do best: create music magic, two
shows a night, for eight straight weeks.

But it all started in April, which
opened with Chick at the star-studded International Jazz Day concert, broadcast
nationwide from The White House lawn. An East Coast duet tour with Béla Fleck
preceded a solid month of shows in Japan with fellow pianist Makoto
Ozone-including two nights with the NHK Orchestra in Tokyo playing Mozart's
"Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra." July brought European
concerts with the all-star "Homage to Heroes" quintet, featuring
Wallace Roney, Kenny Garrett, Christian McBride and Marcus Gilmore.

The past week at Catalina Jazz Club in
Hollywood - ask any Chick fan - has been a long time coming: the Chick Corea
Elektric Band returned, (Aug. 17-24) for a celebratory 7 nights and 14 sold-out
shows at the iconic Hollywood club, which has hosted many legendary Corea
performances. The classic lineup is in force: Corea, Dave Weckl (drums), John
Patitucci (bass), Eric Marienthal (sax), Frank Gambale (guitar). The Elektric
Band will also do a handful of U.S. theater dates in October, and kickoff
Chick's landmark residency at the Blue Note New York.

In the run-up to the Blue Note
Celebration, Chick has managed to fit in three different configurations of his
Trilogy trio: Following US performances in June and July with the
GRAMMY®-winning band with Christian McBride (bass) and Brian Blade (drums),
including performances at the Newport Jazz Festival where Chick was named
Artist of the Year, younger firebrands Avishai Cohen (bass) and Marcus Gilmore
(drums) join Chick for appearances in September in Israel, Kiev, and more
throughout Europe and Asia. The trio will headline the grand opening of the
Blue Note Beijing on Sept. 13. The legendary Eddie Gomez (bass) falls in with
Corea and Blade for a residency at the Blue Note Hawaii (Sep. 21-24) and the
San Francisco Jazz Festival (Sep. 29 - Oct. 2), plus West Coast concerts in
September and October.

Back in his musical home, New York City,
the Blue Note residency (Oct. 19 - Dec. 11) is the kind of honor and
celebration befitting a career like Corea's: 22 GRAMMY® wins. NEA Jazz Master.
Downbeat Magazine Hall-of-Famer. An artistic voice that has influenced and been
inspired by countless musical traditions: modern jazz to traditional flamenco,
western classical to electric jazz-fusion, acclaimed solo performances to many
high-profile collaborations.

All the facets of his restless
creativity will be on display at the Blue Note, in 80 shows with 60 iconic
musicians playing in 15 bands (see bluenotejazz.com for a detailed listing).

These include a tribute to his mentor
Miles Davis with other Davis alumnae; a week with longtime partner-in-crime and
drum legend Steve Gadd; two nights of experimental electronica with drummer
Marcus Gilmore and guests; and the return the Flamenco Heart. The Harlem String
Quartet will join the simpatico duo partnership with Gary Burton. Perennial
fan-favorite projects with Origin and the 15-piece Trodheim Jazz Orchestra will
also occupy the Blue Note stage, plus a three-night series of duets with
pianists yet to be announced.

The final two weeks of the run will
feature the music of Return to Forever and more in two different contexts: the
acoustic lineup (Nov. 30 - Dec. 4) includes Ravi Coltrane (sax), Hubert Laws
(flute), Avishai Cohen (bass) and RTF drummer Lenny White; an electric band
(Dec. 8-11) dubbed Return to Forever Meets Mahavishnu, featuring fellow legend John
McLaughlin on guitar, bassist Victor Wooten and drummer White, will also delve
into some classic Mahavishnu Orchestra material.

Corea's 2016 tour schedule is a
shorthand sketch of his entire musical life: a virtuosic summary of 50 years of
creativity, and a confident step toward exciting new possibilities for the
future.

UPCOMING TOUR DATES:

Chick Corea & Gary Burton Duet

September 1 - 2, Blue Note Milano,
Milano, Italy (2 shows per night)

September 4, Jazz a La Villette, Paris,
France

Chick Corea Elektric Band

October 12, Capitol Theatre, Clearwater,
FL

October 14, Schermerhorn Symphony
Center, Nashville, TN

October 15, The Carolina Theatre,
Durham, NC

October 16, Wilbur Theatre, Boston, MA

October 17, The Birchmere, Alexandria,
VA

Chick Corea Trilogy (Corea / Gomez /
Blade)

September 21 - 24, Blue Note Hawaii,
Honolulu, HI (2 Shows Per Night)

September 25, Maui Arts & Cultural
Center, Castle Theatre, Maui, HI

September 28, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa
Cruz, CA (2 Shows)

September 29, San Francisco Jazz
Festival, San Francisco, CA

October 4 - 5, Jazz Alley, Seattle, WA
(2 Shows Per Night)

October 7, Detroit Symphony Orchestra
Hall, Detroit, MI

October 8, Xavier University Jazz Series
at Gallagher Theater, Cincinnati, OH

You can’t
get any more popular in American entertainment than Keely Smith was in the
early ‘60s. Having blown the doors out in Las Vegas, winning a Grammy, having
hit after hit and lighting up television screens playing straight “man” to
husband Louis Prima, she’d navigated the tricky waters of a professional and
personal divorce, striking out on her own and starting her own record label,
Keely Records, in partnership with close friend and mentor Frank Sinatra, under
the auspices of his Reprise label. A groundbreaking businesswoman, as well as
recording artist, Keely recorded 5 classic albums for Reprise. Because she’d
seen enough show business shenanigans to last a lifetime, a generation before
it became standard practice to do so, she retained the rights to her masters.

Those albums have NEVER come out legitimately on CD anywhere in the world. Now,
Real Gone Music, in concert with Keely & her family, is very proud to
announce that the label is going to answer the pleas of pop fans worldwide and
release ALL of Keely’s Reprise albums on CD for the first time in deluxe
packages featuring bonus tracks, rare photos, and new liner notes by Steve
Hoffman. Produced by Keely’s husband-to-be & Reprise hitmaker Jimmy Bowen,
1964’s The Intimate Keely Smith is, as the steamy cover and saucy title
suggest, a sexy, swinging affair and the quintessential Keely Smith recording
from her Reprise period. A concept album, the project was the long form
representation of her legendary “mood spot” concert segment, a staple of
Keely’s live shows. Key album tracks include a rendition of Sinatra’s “Time
After Time” and a version of Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child”…this album
presents Keely really taking wing as an artist. And the bonus tracks?

Well,
Keely’s strong rapport and long history with Frank Sinatra are well known. As
one of the foundational artists at Reprise, which was at full creative flower,
Keely was part of some really great projects outside of her own releases. With
the blessing of Frank Sinatra Enterprises, we’ve included her duet with Frank,
“Twin Soliloquies,” from the The Reprise Musical Repertory Theatre Presents
South Pacific album, plus rare the non-LP single of the King-Goffin-Spector
track “No One Ever Tells You,” arranged by Jack Nitszche and also produced by
Bowen.

Monday, August 22, 2016

Saxophonist and composer Tim Armacost and pianist and composer
David Berkman of The New York Standards Quartet will pay tribute to the late
Don Friedman with a performance at The Kitano on August 27.Armacost and Berkman will be joined by an
A-list rhythm section featuring Ed Howard on bass and Victor Lewis on drums.

David Berkman

Tim Armacost

The late
pianist/composer Don Friedman was a dear friend and inspiration to
Armacost. "Don was a great
inspiration for me not just as a musician, but as an example of how to live
life. He was passionate about the music
he played, he enjoyed time with Marylin, his wife of 26 years, he was active as
an educator for more than 40, and he was an accomplished and competitive
athlete, literally until a few months before he passed away. He continued to compose, and stayed creative
to the end of his life. When he got sick,
I never heard him complain - he only expressed frustration about not having the
strength to practice the piano for longer than a short while," said
Armacost.

Armacost and
Berkman are founding members of the New York Standards Quartet (along with
bassist Ugonna Okegwo and drummer Gene Jackson), whose mission has always been
to interpret standards and traditional jazz tunes in a way that would allow
audiences to connect and be engaged, while at the same time, playing in the
contemporary jazz style the members have developed through their many decades
on the New York jazz scene. Their new album Power of 10 celebrates the 10th
anniversary of the band, and shines a spotlight on the group's incredible
ability to explore music, together. Tim Armacost explains further, "David
was explaining what being a band for 10 years means: that the result of staying
together is that we've become totally familiar with each other's playing. When
one of us is going for something new, reaching for a different take on a tune,
or just pushing the moment forward, everyone hears it immediately. You can feel
what the other players are thinking. So when one of us gets inspired and starts
a search, or finds a new angle on a tune, everyone jumps in to see where the
music will go, or moves over and makes a space for something different to
happen. Participating in those moments of discovery is intensely exciting, and
that spark is what gives the music its life."

Trumpeter, composer
and musical visionary Wadada Leo Smith has received the Hammer Museum 2016 Mohn
Award for Career Achievement “honoring brilliance and resilience.”The $25,000 Award was announced August 16 by
the museum and presented in conjunction with the exhibition Made in L.A. 2016:
a, the, through, only, organized by Hammer curator Adam Moshayedi and Hamza
Walker, director of education and associate curator, Renaissance Society.Dancer and choreographer Adam Linder also
received a Mohn Award for artistic excellence and Kenzi Shiokava received the
Public Recognition Award.

“The jury
wants to acknowledge Wadada Leo Smith’s outstanding achievements as a musician,
his influential work as a teacher and a mentor for younger artists in Los
Angeles, and the decades-long expansion of an inventive, completx and layered
system of notation simultaneously interrogating the picotral and the
performative,” stated Juse Luis Blondet, curator, Special Initiatives, Los
Angeles County Museum of Art.

“I’m so
honored to have won this award,” said Smith.
“I’m so happy that my scores are being viewed as works of art. That means the world to me.”

Smith, who
turns 75 in December 2016, recently received a 2016 Doris Duke Artist Award and
received an honorary doctorate from CalArts, where he was honored as Faculty
Emeritus. He maintains an active touring and recording schedule. His latest
epic recording America’s National Parks will be released October 14, 2016 on
Cuneiform Records. A six-movement suite
inspired by the scenic splendor, historic legacy, and political controversies
of the country’s public landscapes the recording features Smith with pianist
Anthony Davis, bassist John Lindberg, drummer Pheeroan akLaff and cellist
Ashley Walters. Later this year TUM
Records will release Wadada Leo Smith: Nagwa featuring Smith with guitarists
Michael Gregory Jackson, Henry Kaiser, Brandon Ross and Lamar Smith, plus Bill
Laswell on electric bass, Pheeroan akLaff on drums and Adam Rudolph on
percussion. Coming on TUM in early 2017 will be Alone: Reflections and
Meditations on Monk, a solo recording.

Smith’s 2016
schedule includes performances at the Montreal International Jazz Festival,
Berlin Jazz Festival, Molde Jazz Festival, Pittsburgh International LiveJazz
Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Vision Festival, Festival Suoni Per il
Pipolo, Summer Stage, NYC and the premiere of his opera /cantata Rosa Parks at
the FONT Festival, among others (see full schedule at end of this release.)

Totaling
$150,000, the Mohn Awards are among the largest art prizes dedicated to
recognizing the work of emerging and under-recognized artists from the greater
Los Angeles region. A jury of professional curators selected the Mohn Award and
the Career Achievement Award while the Public Recognition Award was determined
by on-site voting from June 11 through August 14, 2016. The jury included
Ingrid Schaffner, curator, 57th Carnegie International, 2018, Carnegie Museum
of Art, Pittsburgh, Mika Yoshitake, associate curator, Hirshhorn Museum and
Sculpture Garden, and Jose Luis Blondet, curator, Special Initiatives, Los
Angeles County Museum of Art. All three awards were once again funded through
the generosity of Los Angeles philanthropists and art collectors Jarl and
Pamela Mohn and the Mohn Family Foundation as part of Made in L.A., the
Hammer's biennial exhibition series highlighting emerging and under-recognized
artists from the Los Angeles region.

“Curators
Aram Moshayedi and Hamza Walker selected a tight group of artists and offered
them room to stretch. This exhibition is stunning in terms of the range of
practices and performers, the depth of exploration, and the array of programs
it presents. It's as it if everyone won and gave a prize through their participation
in Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only,” said Ingrid Schaffner.

Wadada Leo
Smith, whose roots are in the Delta blues, is one of the most boldly original
figures in American jazz and creative contemporary music and one of the great
trumpet players of our time. As a
composer, improviser, performer, music theorist/writer and educator, Smith has
devoted a lifetime to navigating the emotional heart, spiritual soul, social
significance and physical structure of jazz to create new music of infinite
possibility and nuance.

A 2016 Doris
Duke Artist and 2013 Pulitzer finalist, Smith was DownBeat Magazine’s 2013
“Composer of the Year” and the Jazz Journalist Association’s 2013 Musician of
the Year and Trumpeter of the Year. In 2014 DownBeat magazine named him “One of
the 80 Coolest Things in Jazz Today,” citing his “magisterial instrumental
voice, his inspirational leadership, and his command of classical, jazz and
blues forms to remind us of what’s gone down and what’s still happening.” The
Jazz Journalists Association named Smith Composer of the Year in 2015. Early in
his career, Smith developed Ankhrasmation, a radically original musical
language that uses visual directions and remains the philosophical foundation
of his oeuvre. In October 2015, The Renaissance Society at the University of
Chicago presented the first comprehensive exhibition of his Ankhrasmation
scores.

Smith has
released more than 50 albums as a leader. His landmark 2012 civil rights opus
Ten Freedom Summers was called “A staggering achievement… It merits comparison
to Coltrane’s A Love Supreme in sobriety and reach,” (Francis Davis, Rhapsody
Jazz Critics Poll). Recent recordings include The Great Lakes Suites, which
earned second place in NPR Music’s 2014 Jazz Critics Poll and Celestial
Weather, which garnered extensive praise as “a perfectly suited twosome…4.5
stars” (DownBeat). In March 2016 ECM
released a cosmic rhythm with each stroke featuring pianist Vijay Iyer and
Smith, whom Iyer calls his “hero, friend and mentor.” The recording has earned
wide critical acclaim and the duo is touring internationally in 2016 and 2017.

Born
December 18, 1941 in Leland, Mississippi, Smith began performing at age
thirteen with his stepfather, bluesman Alex Wallace and went on to play in his
high school bands. He received his formal musical education from the U.S.
Military band program (1963), the Sherwood School of Music (1967-69), and
Wesleyan University (1975-76). Part of the first generation of musicians to
come out of Chicago’s AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Music),
Smith collaborated with a dazzling cast of fellow visionaries. He has received
commissions to write music for numerous groups including the Wroclaw Philharmonic
Orchestra, and was invited to perform and speak on human rights at the Onassis
Cultural Centre in Athens.

Smith has
been awarded grants and fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation, the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, Chamber Music
America with support from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Meet the
Composer/Lila Wallace-Reader's Digest Commissioning Program, the MAP Fund and
the National Endowment for the Arts, among many others.

You can never
tell what will happen when friends get together. The trio of Marcio Menescal,
DJ Marcelinho DaLua, and Alex Moreira originally started remixing classic bossa
nova tracks for fun. Eighteen years and five albums later, Bossacucanova has
honored and helped evolve its native Brazilian soundtrack.

The Best of
Bossacucanova (Six Degrees Records) assembles songs the band members feel are
the most representative of their diverse and progressive catalog, including two
brand new songs. As Menescal, son of legendary bossa nova pioneer Roberto,
says, “We decided to choose songs featuring our best arrangements, most
original beats, and top performances.” The album is set to be release on August
12.

As the trio
initially had no ambitions of becoming a band, Menescal says that offered a
kind of freedom when they worked on their debut album, Revisited Classics. In
hindsight this collection offers a reflective gaze at what they’ve
accomplished. Still, Menescal waxes poetic over the early days: “We like the
beginning when we had no experience; that allowed us to be bolder.”

This is why
the collection opens with a global lounge classic, ‘Berimbau,’ titled (and
featuring) one of Brazil’s most famous contributions—the berimbau is the
single-stringed percussive instrument rooted with a gourd, mostly known for its
role in the martial art form, capoeira. Bossacucanova’s tribute features a
meandering beat with a chant-style chorus that is a trademark of the nation's
folk music. It features the voices of Os Cariocas, a group initially founded in
1942.

For this
song and ‘Meditacão,’ which features vocalist and guitarist Wanda Sa (who cut
her teeth performing with Sérgio Mendes’s Brazil ’65), Menescal borrowed
original tracks from his father’s label and remixed them with “distorted guitars,
flutes, amplifiers, and guitar pedals.” The samples were lifted straight from
vinyl with a microphone placed near the monitor—a harbinger of today’s digital
drag-and-drop techniques.

Bossacucanova
has made its career by blending such Brazilian anthems, working with a pantheon
of musical gods and goddesses while keeping tabs on emerging technologies.
Never have distortion, DJ scratches, or electronic beats distracted from the
melodic core that comprises the nation’s soul. This is nowhere more evident
than in the upbeat hit, ‘Essa Moça tá Diferente,’ featuring a sample of Chico
Buarque along with swing vocals by Wilson Simoninha and saxophone contribution
by Leo Gandelman.

“Our great
references are still the music and culture of the sixties through eighties,”
says Menescal. “Brazilian music is very rich—it has several rhythmic styles, an
abundance of harmonies, and extraordinary musicians. But we will always feel
like we need to improve and refresh what has come before. And we have many
projects with this in mind coming soon.”

Keeping the
collection fresh, a dubby, percussive remix of ‘Waldomiro Pena’ by British
Afro-Brazilian group Da Lata breathes new life into this Bossacucanova staple,
which was originally recorded by Jorge Ben for the popular television show,
Plantao de Policia. Another new tune, written for Carnaval, ‘Indio Quer Apito,’
updates a carioca song from the sixties, with Pedro Luis contributing vocals
and Orquestra Criola, led by Humberto Araújo, spicing up the dance floor track.

It’s
impossible to separate Brazilian culture from its political climate. The
Tropicália movement of the early seventies addressed important social issues;
the music, then and now, has long been a response to what’s going on around the
country, a mirror for its people to meditate on and, ideally, uplift.
Bossacucanova is in this latter camp, using music as a tool for unifying a
people that is currently in the midst of a severe economic downturn.

“When the
country faces times of crises, the culture reacts immediately,” says Menescal.
“In difficult times, people renew themselves. We find intelligent, creative
solutions. While all of this is happening, it is our role to have a positive
influence on the people and in Brazilian music.”

This
self-appointed ambassadorial position is certainly appreciated. The band’s next
tour will be a survey of its nearly two decades making incredible music,
progressively walking through its rich history. Members will blend the worlds
they know so well: the expansive technological domain of previously unimagined
soundscapes combined with the integrity and joy of live performance, the
foundation of Brazil’s music since the beginning.

“Our band is
a family,” Menescal concludes. “We’ve built this friendship over years of
touring, living through a range of emotions: good times, fights, music and
love. We hope there still will be lots of surprises left!”